5.1 PTR: Brawler's Guild Preview

This following article is a PTR preview from the Brawler's Guild. Since this preview, the Guild has gone through several changes. Please read Wowhead's Brawler's Guild Guide for all the details that made it live to 5.1.

Since our visual preview of the Brawler's Guild last week, many more features have been added on the PTR. Players can queue up for brawls, gain ranks, purchase consumables, and loot rewards.

The Brawler's Guild has set up fighting rings set up in Stormwind and Orgrimmar where players engage in solo PvE challenges. Winning increases your rank within the Brawler's Guild, making you eligible for more and more rewards. The areas are set up so that players fight in a central pit while spectators are encouraged to watch on the sides.

Gaining Rank

The Brawler's Guild is a bit livelier now on the PTR. The announcers are in full swing and a variety of champions were unleashed on players. We watched C'thun, Dungeon Master Vishas, some undead spirits, a large dinosaur, and a Necromancer beat up Alliance players as well some elite Horde NPCs. We tried out a few ranks ourselves, and it seems you get ~250 reputation per completed fight, with 4-5 fights per rank.

The announcer was having a great time introducing the new NPCs:

Also entering the arena: Goredome! He WILL attempt to gore you. With his dome.

Also entering the arena: The Dark Summoner. Wow, he doesn't even have a real name. Spooky!

The opposition includes some of Gnomeregan's finest…although they've all seen better days. It's the leper gnome quintet!

Now this is what I'm talking about! More dinosaurs, please! It's King Kulaka!!

We have a special guest today: the always-endearing, ever-resilient, Millhouse Manastorm! Stonecore was merely a setback!

From what we encountered, each encounter required some situational awareness as opposed to outgearing it and burning the boss down--there were abilities that could one shot players, some interruptible casts, projectiles to dodge, and kitable phases. Stuns and self-healing proved very useful.

Click the cut to read about the consumables and brawl rewards!

Brawler's Guild Vendors

Consumables were added to Brawler's Guild Quartermasters--healing potions, dps potions, and some fancier things like defensive and runspeed consumables. There's also a handful of consumables spectators can use, to either enhance or hamper the brawler's performance.

Update: as of November 2nd, Rotten Fruit and Friendly Favor were removed--spectators cannot influence the outcome of a brawl. Several more complex consumables (dodge, runspeed) were removed as well.

Anyone can purchase the following items, regardless of reputation with the Brawler's Guild:

Brawl Rewards

For every successful match, players get Brawler's Purse. At higher levels, players might get Bulging Brawler's Purse. These items have a chance to contain vendor trash with fun descriptions--some of it quite expensive.

Comments

Comment by IcyFrozen

Why? Like Pet Battles, this is just a fun way to waste time, not something meant to be done for end game.

Pet battles didn't cost 60 - 100k to get into.

Also can we get some clarification, this guide says you can invite up to 10 people a day once your in, but previously it was stated you get 1 invite when you achieve level 7. Which is accurate? Obviously this greatly would effect the value of the invites.

Comment by Adamsm

on Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:46:50 -0600

Pet battles didn't cost 60 - 100k to get into.

And? It's still a gold sink, and a way to get rid of a surplus of gold in the game's economy. Also; have you seen the prices for the pets on the AH? Especially the rarer ones?

Comment by IcyFrozen

on Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:55:10 -0600

Pet battles didn't cost 60 - 100k to get into.

And? It's still a gold sink, and a way to get rid of a surplus of gold in the game's economy. Also; have you seen the prices for the pets on the AH? Especially the rarer ones?

yes but you can be entirely successful at Pet Battles and not spend a gold coin. You dont NEED a Darkmoon Rabbit. You do NEED a Blood-soaked Invitation.

For the records I'm not saying that you even need to do Brawler's Guild, just saying that if you have to dump a bunch of gold to get into it they should have the made the rewards a bit more of a compensation. Heirloom rings that would give any class a potential new heirloom( why just the monk?), more battle pets (seriously the only pet you get from the Brawler's Guild isnt even a battle pet? Really Blizz?), even some transmog gear (maybe with a more violent look, or blood stained or something suitably combat themed) would have been entirely justifiable for the expense.

Comment by Nagassh

on Thu, 29 Nov 2012 07:44:23 -0600

yes but you can be entirely successful at Pet Battles and not spend a gold coin. You dont NEED a Darkmoon Rabbit. You do NEED a Blood-soaked Invitation.

You don't need to spend a dime to get into brawlers guild. Besides it being entirely optional content, you can get a ticket off rare mobs or a friends invite. Paying is optional, if you don't like the rewards - don't pay the premium price for early entry and go farm some rare mobs / wait on a friend to get an invite.

I've got in after a grand total of 1hour and a bit of rare mob farming, it's cost me nothing and I've enjoyed the fights for what they are, a fun minigame.

Comment by Califpornia

on Fri, 30 Nov 2012 03:51:14 -0600

Also can we get some clarification, this guide says you can invite up to 10 people a day once your in, but previously it was stated you get 1 invite when you achieve level 7. Which is accurate? Obviously this greatly would effect the value of the invites.

Just one invite per achievement. Sad :(

Comment by datgrl

on Tue, 04 Dec 2012 05:54:28 -0600

I got a quest as part of the Alli Operation Shield Wall yesterday that took me to the Brawler's Guild in order to find an SI:7 agent. I stuck around a while and watched players who had gotten the invitation fight the various mobs. Yes, the bosses appear to get harder as you progress up the ladder. And no one I saw in there was able to do it the first time. The players I watched were in some f the leading raiding guilds on my server and folks that I believe know their class and understand fight mechanics.

Just watching the players fight the same bosses (druid, hunter, lock and pally) was very educational. If you are using a buff/debuff tracker, you can see what tactics are being employed against the boss spells. Icy-Veins showed a Crocolisk as the 1st opponent but I never saw it during the 30 minutes or so I watched. I was able to get "Bottle Service" by hitting an NPC that randomly aggroed. And I got "I'm Your Number 1 Fan" when I cheered the 2nd time. Not sure why it didn't work the first time.

All in all, it was extremely entertaining. I loved the chatter of the NPC's. I truly enjoyed watching the fights. There's no reason to sit around the capitol city now and troll trade chat when you're bored :) Just hang out at the Brawler's Guild.

Comment by longslowgoodbye

on Sun, 09 Dec 2012 13:07:13 -0600

what a waste of 2k gold on that invitation... cant solo as rogue and no rewards.

Comment by Problimatic

on Sun, 09 Dec 2012 13:37:00 -0600

what a waste of 2k gold on that invitation... cant solo as rogue and no rewards.

I know rank 8 rogues, so this is entirely possible for rogues to do. The invite is also BoA so you can participate on any of your characters, not just your rogue. The Brawler's Guild is fantastic, it allows you to better learn your class, sometimes even in specs you aren't used to playing. It also requires high situational awareness, the mechanics are actually punishing if you screw up (Even rank 1 bosses will one shot people if you don't watch the mechanics.) I'm stuck at 7.5 right now (Don't have enough dps yet on my druid to beat the mines guy), so yes there are some simply gear check bosses at higher ranks. The reward comes at the end when you get the Brawler title from beating a rank 8 boss.